Philippines: Island Hopping in Palawan (July 5)

On Saturday afternoon, we flew out to Puerto Princessa, the capital of Palawan. Palawan is an island southwest of Manila. It is regarded as The Last Frontier and so we selected Palawan over Boracay. Although Boracay has beautiful beaches, it is known as a party town. Palawan is supposed to be more untouched.


The baggage carrousel was outside!


Pristine Beach. After inquiring whether there was a beach nearby at the hotel, we were told there was Pristine Beach. Unfortunately, it did not look too pristine!


C2 and I walked by a seaside village and this little boy followed us. He was very intrigued by the camera. He didn’t speak any English though. So cute!


We hit a Philippino restaurant to taste some of their specialties, including Crispy Pata, fried pork knuckles. The Gastronomer is enjoying every last bit of it. She’s not The Gastronomer for nothing!

On our second day in Palawan, C2 and I decided to go island hopping and snorkelling in Honda Bay (or Hunda Bay – Hunda meaning deep sea in Spanish). The Gastronomer and The Astronomer decided to head north to Sabang, having already experienced snorkelling in Nha Trang.

On our tour was our tour guide Aissa and two native Philippino from Manila: Ariel and Lai. We visited three islands. We spent the morning and had lunch on Pandan Island, its name stemming from the pandan trees. The beautiful island was small enough to walk around the perimeter in an hour. In the afternoon, we went to Snake Island where there was a dedicated space for snorkelling. Surprisingly, there were a lot of fish, especially if you fed them bread. On Starfish Island was an area with corals that was also great for snorkelling.

Most of the islands in Honda Bay are privately owned and visitors must pay a fee to visit. What’s amazing is that most Palawans don’t even know about these islands. Unfortunately, it’s a case of tourists getting to enjoy attractions rather than locals.


On our way to Pandan Island.


Our lovely guide Aissa!


Pandan Island from afar. The pandan trees are on the other side of the island!

Here are the pandan trees. The fruit looks like a warped pineapple!

I don’t know what this fruit is but its colour really popped in the background of beach colours.

The water was a beautiful turquoise. I wish I was there now!

Lunch comprised of rice, vegetables (eggplant was my favourite dish), chicken, squid and grilled tuna. There was a salad of tomatoes and salted eggs. Philippinos love salted eggs! All this for four people! We asked the tour guide to join us but she was shy about it and just picked at her food. After we finished, what was left went to the boat men (they wouldn’t join us either) and finally, their leftovers went to the dogs!

Our boat hit a shallow area where there were tons of starfish! These ones were by the beach. I tried to “rescue” them by throwing them farther into the water, but people kept picking them up and taking pictures with them over their heads. Don’t they realize they are living creatures!

Starfish Island.

I invited Ariel, Lai and Aissa for dinner. We went to Badjao Seafront restaurant which was close to Pristine Beach. Our new Philippino friends were lovely people and even insisted on paying for dinner (how embarrassing… I invited them!)

After dinner all five of us jumped into one tricycle because the restaurant was rather remote. Although the tricycles here are a bit roomier than in Manila, it was still a tight squeeze!

Philippines: Intramuros and Randomness in Manila (July 5)

On Saturday morning, we parted ways to explore different areas in Manila: The Gastronomer and The Astronomer went to a food market, C2 went to visit the Chinese cemetery and I went to Intramuros. Intramuros is a walled city that was founded in the 16th century. I figured I could see some interesting Spanish influenced architecture. This area actually reminded me of the French Quarters in New Orleans.

Here are some of my favourite pictures.

I usually would never go in a horse drawn carriage but I twisted my ankle on my way down from the hike the previous day so I wanted to take it easy. I swear I'm not one of those people!

San Augustin Church, the oldest church in the Philippines.

Manila Cathedral.

Lions in front of the Cathedral seem to be an Asian influence?

Old buildings are resurfaced to look nice but maintain their original architecture.

Casa Manila.

An old convent.

Supposedly the Japanese held prisoners shackled down here. The prisoners would drown when water from the nearby River Pasig submerged it.

A section of the wall.

There’s even a McDonald’s within the walled city…!

City Hall outside the walls.

Here are more pictures of Manila’s unique types of transportations: the jeepney and tricycle. Not only are these unique, but each is also uniquely decorated to express the owner’s passions or hobbies.

Jeepney (mix between a bus and a jeep) is Philippines' most popular mode of public transportation. Originally, they were made from US military jeeps. When you get on, you just pay the driver if you're next to him; if not, you just give your money to the customer next to you, the money is passed on to the driver and any change is passed back the same way! The red one is my favourite one! Totalled decked out.

View of a jeepney from a jeepney.

Tricycle. People ride in the side car and behind the driver when the car is full. I guess it would be equivalent to Vietnam’s xe om.

Finally, most Philippino's are extremely devoted to Christianity. This could be seen everywhere. Every taxi had a few statues of Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. There were also Christian idols in the shopping malls. The jeepneys' names usually sounded Christian too, such as Almighty God above!

Enough said.

I got a glimpse of Jesus Christ at the intersection.

Lonely Planet said there were not many vegetarian options in the Philippines, but they do have Great Lenten specials!

Philippines: Manila and Lake Taal (July 3-4)

I spent this last week in the Philippines. Unfortunately, The Boyfriend did not get to come; he had to work. Fortunately, I had three great travelling companions: The Gastronomer (whom I met through her Gastronomy website in HCMC), her boyfriend The Astronomer and C2 who works with The Astronomer. C2 is also a fellow Canadian Viet Kieu. Are all the aliases confusing?

After contemplating a few destinations within South East Asia, we were attracted to the Philippines because of the combination of city/beach we could visit at an affordable price. We also felt Philippines was more off the beaten track because it is not yet a popular destination for tourists. I think the Philippines is perceived as lacking its own unique culture after being colonized by Spain and then becoming an American territory? Incorrect! They definitely have a culture that is unique to them. I had imagined everyone speaking English (sort of like in Singapore) but while most people can speak English, most speak a mixture of Tagalog (with some Spanish sounding words) and English that’s quite intriguing.

Ok, no more of the boring stuff. Here are some pictures and an overview of our first few days in Manila. I will break the trip down into a few posts including entries of our stay on the island of Palawan.

Our trip started late on Wednesday night. It seems all Ho Chi Minh City-Manila flights are scheduled at 1 am. On top of this, our flight was delayed by over an hour. After arriving in Manila, we just slept in until noon. After waking up, we hit a mall to have some lunch and also book our flights to a beach destination. And maybe did a little bit of shopping...!


C2, The Astronomer and The Gastronomer taking a nap at Tan Son Nhat airport.


Manila is known for malls after malls after more malls!

The next day, we decided to go see Lake Taal. In the middle of the lake, is Volcano Island which has its own lake in the centre. We wanted to book a tour but the ones we found were about 100 USD! The G&A (Gastronomer and Astronomer) tried to book a taxi, but the driver called them at 4:30 am and demanded more money. We therefore had to go on our own by bus, which was quite the undertaking.

One thing we found about taxi drivers is that not all of them are familiar with the city. You really have to clarify whether they actually know where you want to go. Our taxi driver dropped us off at the bus depot, but we could not find our bus company. People were harrasing us to get on their buses. Finally, we were lucky to meet a lovely young woman, Rosalind, who correctly recognized we needed help. She took a jeepney with us to the correct bus area. A jeepney is a mixture of minibus and jeep; they usually have one route and people can jump in and out easily. She then guided us to our aircon bus. What a sweetheart! Tickets cost under 100 PHP (1 USD = 44 Philippino pesos).


We got to travel on the infamous jeepney on our way to the correct intersection for our bus to Tagaytay.

After we arrived in Tagaytay, we headed to Leslie’s Restaurant where the view of the lake was breathtaking.

We got to eat in cute huts.

This hut overlooking the lake required us to pay a 500 PHP (about 10 USD) premium which we weren’t willing to pay.

While we were eating, a man came to sell us a boat tour package. We agreed on 1500 PHP for the ride down to the dock and the boat ride to the island. However, he only agreed to one tricycle. A tricycle is made up of a side car bolted to a motorbike. So The Gastronomer and C2 (because they're the smaller ones...) climbed behind the driver while The Astronomer and I squeezed into the sidecar. It was an interesting ride down.

This is the only picture I could take of The Gastronomer and C2 behind her from my angle in the sidecar.

We then got a boat to cross over to Volcano Island.

We started the one mile hike up to the volcanic ridge. We were the rare ones who did not go on horseback.

These men were still hoping we’d go down on horseback so they kept following us.

Part of our hike seemed like we were on another planet. We could see vents with smoke coming out. We could also feel heat at our feet and smell sulphur.

The view of the lake within Volcano Island was pretty amazing: The Astronomer, The Gastronomer and C2.

The ride back up in the tricycle was more interesting. By then, it was raining. We decided to switch positions: C2 and The Gastronomer in the sidecar, The Astronomer and I on the motorbike. Imagine one motorbike pulling five people uphill in the rain!! The driver suddenly stopped to put a chain; the sidecar was not tightened sufficiently. He stopped a few times. It's never good when you need roadside maintenance...

The tricycle drove us to the bus stop and we took the first bus we got. Our bus ride back did not have air con and so was more affordable for locals. This also meant more frequent stops. There was a television screen at the front that showed the news or a basketball game. We glimpsed "typhoon" and "tropical depression" in Northern Palawan which was alarming since we were heading there the next day!

On our bus ride back to the city, C2 and The Gastronomer purchased a special buko (coconut juice) pie, not one of my favourites. Vendors would hop on the bus and sell food; a favourite seemed to be pork rinds.

A young girl got on the bus. I think her stop was near the Adventist Church. She stood up and started reading out loud even though she wasn’t very loud. She then passed these envelopes out! Philippinos are very religious; more pictures to come on that.

Exchange Sm-exchange Rate

This entry might be boring to some. So warning!: I am going to discuss the VND:USD exchange rate because it has been a cause of frustration for me for the past month or so. I'll try to explain what I know the best I can, but I think there are many things I don't know nor understand.

The US dollar is highly used in Vietnam, like in many other poor countries. Not only is it widely used, but many things other than souvenirs for tourists are quoted in USD. I pay my Vietnamese classes and rent (the real source of my frustration) in USD.

When we arrived in Vietnam in February, 1 USD was worth about 16,000 dong. This number has been increasing as the USD has become scarce here. Someone is hogging USD, either Vietnamese people hoping it will go up (really, speculating) or possibly even the bank/government trying to decrease the use of USD in the country. The low supply of USD and higher demand is causing the price to increase (I remember something from my economics class...!).

This has caused Vietnam, in the past month or so, to have two exchange rates in the country: the official bank rate and the unofficial black market rate (the rate jewelry stores use). In the past months, in Thanh Nien, a Vietnamese daily, the black market rate was quoted, around 17,500 dong while the bank rate was around 16,400 dong.

You can imagine what this discrepancy instigates... What exchange rate should be used? This is actually quite a big difference when you're paying a large amount like rent. Our rent is 400 USD, but as we have used up our USD we have been paying in VND. My landlady has always gone by the black market rate. Since our rent has been stable (she would ask for an extra 30,000, about 2 USD due to the fluctuating exchange, which shows how petty she is!), I didn't actually realize there were two rates until last month, when she wanted an extra 400,000 dong (about 25 USD). After a heated discussion, we paid the bank rate but were told that next month she would only take USD.

Fast forward to this month. We tried to purchase USD at the bank but the bank had instated a policy that no USD could be purchased, unless you were closing your account. Even then, a request has to be written for the director to review. So no one can purchase USD, other than going to the jewelry store and paying the inflated exchange.

With the bank rate being 16,847 dong and the black market rate nearing 18,500 dong, we knew we were in for a battle. The landlady said she could not accept the bank rate because she would lose out. Really, she's only losing the potential of making more money. The exchange rate is not affecting her costs of running a building. I argued that The Boyfriend's salary is quoted in USD, but is paid in dong, using the bank rate, so we'd be paying an extra 40 USD. She argued we are two people and use a lot of water! What does that have to do with anything???

I asked her what the black market rate is because it wasn't quoted in the Thanh Nien. She said she'd go to a jewelry and check. How dubious does that sound? I think something has happened. Vietnamese people are discouraged to use this rate and so it is no longer quoted in the paper.

Since our lease ends at the end of the month, we figured we had some leverage because we want to stay an extra month. After telling our landlady this, and that we would only stay for the extra month if we paid the bank rate, she told us she'd ask her son. Ten minutes later, she knocked, smiling sheepishly. "Pay the bank rate! It's not a big difference!". Sure, it's not a big difference when you're getting an additional month's rent.

Whether any of this legal, I'm not sure. I just can't imagine this happening in Canada. I understand that the Canadian dollar is not strongly pegged against another currency. But still... When things like this happen, I realize I would not stay in Vietnam for the long term. Things like this would just infuriate me. Of course, next time we'll know better. Ask for a straight out quote in dong for rent or at least demand the bank exchange rate from the get go.